I´m still having a great time here in Costa Rica - only 2 weeks left. i should be able to get on the internet again this thursday, but that´ll probably be the last time i´m online in CR.
so, what's new here? well...
i went white water rafting again this long weekend, but with a whole new group of friends. the water was a little faster and crazier than before, and there were a couple of rapid that were pretty much like waterfalls; i was in the front of the raft, and going over the top and you're staring down into a whirlpool with the guy shouting "HARD FORWARD!! HARDER!! HARDER!!!" - it's still a mega rush and well worth doing again. no one fell out this time, but a lot of us got out for a swim in the lovely cool water. the guy taking the other raft didn't speak any english other than 'forward' backward' 'hard forward' and 'stop', and kept talking to the group in spanish, and only one of them spoke any spanish so they had no clue what he was saying! but they said that when tey got to one of the craziest waterfall-like rapids, the guy went "oh my god!" which doesn't fill you with hope - ha ha! but our raft was pretty well co-ordinated and we got over all the rapids just fine, even if it was excitingly scary at the time.
the new people drink far more alcohol than people did last phase, and they play dares quite often, some of which have been pretty funny, and have included eating a flower, drinking soy sauce and chilero, having your nose hairs plucked, sucking a teabag for 10 minutes, the removal of various items of clothing, snorting salt, eating flour, dancing in a gay way while being videod, kissing someone's arse cheek, but the funniest one was when someone spat into someone else's mouth, like a mother bird might regurgitate food into a baby bird's mouth. it was gross but hilarious. i shan't name names as i think they are probably embarrassed about the stuff they've done.... maybe not Rick though....
on the beach on nest check yesterday, Danya, Rich and i found a turtle, and thought it was dead... then realised it was alive.... then realised it was tied up... then realised it had tied itself up! it had got itself caught in some rope which was left on the beach, and Rich just had to pull the rope off from around its front flipper, and she was free to go. it appears that turtles don't have a 'reverse' gear, so she couldn't get free once she'd gone into it. how these animals have lasted 100 million years is remarkable. i guess there weren't many ropes in jurassic times though.
Kyle may have gone and Voyager discussions may have ceased, but i've found someone else who knows all the flags - it's Rich, who would have thought that the project leader knew them all, and we've been here all this time and not realised. the games which keep us going during times of boredom are 'name a country beginning with...' and we take it in turns. it's usually Danya who wants to play, even though me and Rich beat him at everything.
Oh, and for anyone interested in the Tico-Brit spotting contest, there were only 2 species in it as of yesterday, so Andres and Jon are still neck and neck. i'm off to Mexico before phase ends, so hopefully one of the interns can post it on the facebook group about who won.
what else? umm, there's a tiger heron which keeps hanging around base, especially near the compost heap! it stinks worse than ever, and t's now a daily task on camp duty to turn it over, although some people may have accidentally-on-purpose forgotten to do it. i know i did. something else weird (and disgusting) is that someone has been wrapping their shits in toilet paper and placing them in the burnables bin! what is wrong with people?! it did cross my mind as to whether someone had done it for a dare one time, but i know they wouldn't make the staff suffer like that for the sake of a dare. Andres said this is the third time it's happened, and he thinks it's because the poo was so big that the person was worried it wouldn't flush! how gross is that ?!
We are reaching the peak of the green turtle season, and it's now normal to see about 80 turtles a night, and for there to be about 90 tracks per eighth of a mile, meaning that you're shuffling your feet pretty much solidly for 3 miles! only one hawksbill so far has been worked though, but we have had 10 renesters now, and each one is given a name with the next letter of the alphabet, and we are up to Jamiroquai. the other day, i was on night walk with Molly, Danya and Casey, and we were sat down waiting for a turtle to arrive (there's so many now that you don't have to wait long) and a turtle came right past us - it was within a foot of Molly, and we all had to keep still and quiet so as not to scare it, but we were silently laughing and shaking up and down because it would drag itself a couple of 'steps', then look around, see us, and then carry on, then do it again. we were RIGHT next to it, and it was either oblivious or not worried about our presence! we named her helen kellar. i love turtles though - they are perhaps not that bright, but they are so gentle and harmless (except when they smack a flipper against you or flick sand in your face) that it's so hard to think why anyone would want to hurt them. they are pretty slow and defenceless; it's so wrong that anyone would try to get the better of them, when they are such simple, beautiful creatures. the rangers caught some poachers the other night, which is good to know, but the punishment for poaching is not high enough, and they may be back again. some eggs were taken the other week from a nest that had been triangulated - you feel violated on behalf of the turtle when that happens. but we are doing our bit, helping the turtles, and providing a presence on the beach to help deter poachers and to keep track (pun slightly intended!) of how many turtles come onto the beach to nest.
in other news.... Marcus shaved off his beard and looked unrecognisable until he'd got a few days growth back; Pablo the marine toad is still living happily in the big dorm; we still have a bat in our room on and off; i had to remove a four-lined whiptail (small lizard) from our room the other day as he'd come in and got stuck in our window. i quite liked the feel of him in my hand, but he was really wriggly and squirmy, and leapt out of my hands from a great height once i'd taken him outside. i hope he comes back though. the weather continues to alternate between hot (35'C?) and torrential rain, and the drainpipes installed by Trent are a great addition to the camp. (Trent is one of the funniest, craziest people you will ever meet who was here for 2 weeks; love him or hate him, you'll never forget him!) Casey and i have painted a map of the edible plants at camp, and we now try to eat more of the stuff that was there all along but we didn't realise it. food continues to involve rice, spaghetti and beans a lot of the time, though some people are more inventive. i don't really miss any food from home; i can still buy chocolate here!
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